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Nationalism and Populism Detrimental to Freedom

With the rise of nationalism, populism, and hybrid forms
of authoritarianism, freedom has been for years under assault in
many parts of the world.

Unsurprisingly, among the countries with the most
substantial deteriorations in freedom in recent years are Turkey
and Poland, both experiencing evident weakening of the rule of
law, contracting religious freedom, and attacks on freedom
of expression.

Today we are releasing the fourth annual Human Freedom Index, the most
comprehensive measure of freedom ever created for a large number of
countries around the globe. The report documents global
freedom on a continuing decline since 2008, the earliest
year for which a robust enough index could be produced.

Freedom has indeed taken
root in various societies, and it is also spreading in numerous
countries around the globe.

On a country level, we have seen the most significant
deteriorations during this time in Greece, Brazil, Venezuela,
Egypt, and Syria. Also, notably, Russia’s rating fell from
6.53 in 2008 to 6.27 in 2016; Hungary’s rating fell from 8.05 to
7.74; Argentina’s score dropped from 7.04 to 6.47; and
Turkey’s rating decreased from 6.92 to 6.47 (between 2011 and 2016,
Turkey’s rating decreased even more markedly, falling from 7.22 to
6.47).

On a positive side, countries that saw improvement in their
level of human freedom most since 2008 are Côted’Ivoire, Angola,
Zimbabwe, Taiwan, and Lesotho.

Freedom has indeed taken root in various societies, and
it is also spreading in numerous countries around the
globe. Notably, New Zealand tops the Human Freedom
Index rankings this year, followed by Switzerland.

Both outperform Hong Kong, whose ranking and ratings continue to
drop in light of ever-increasing interference and perceived
interference by mainland China in Hong Kong’s policies and
institutions, including infringements on freedom of the press and
the independence of the legal system.

Eastern Europe as a region has less freedom than North America,
Western Europe, Oceania, and East Asia, but more than Latin America
&the Caribbean, Caucasus & Central Asia, South Asia,
sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa (see
Figure 2).

The most significant improvement in freedom since 2008
occurred in East Asia (0.11) and sub-Saharan Africa
(0.11), while the largest deteriorations in freedom
occurred in the Caucasus and Central Asia (−0.25) and the Middle
East and North Africa (−0.58), the least free region.

Figure 3 shows that within Eastern Europe, the most
significant improvement in freedom since 2008 occurred in Macedonia
(0.16), Estonia (0.09), and Slovenia (0.08), while
Montenegro (-0.21), Hungary (-0.15), and Poland (-0.10) saw the
biggest deteriorations.

Of the 12 major categories that make up the index, all except
three saw some deterioration since 2008.

Religion, Movement, and Rule of Law saw the most significant
decreases in freedom since 2008, while Sound Money saw the largest
improvement (see Figure 4).

With the Human Freedom Index, my coauthor Ian
Vasquez and I aim to capture the degree to which people
are free to enjoy fundamental rights such as freedom of speech,
religion, association, and assembly, and also measures freedom of
movement, women’s freedoms, crime and violence, and legal
discrimination against same-sex relationships.

In this context, the index ranks 162 countries based on
79 distinct indicators of personal, civil, and economic freedom,
using data from 2008 to 2016, the most recent year for
which sufficient data are available.

Tanja
Porčnik is President and co-founder of the Visio Institute, a
think tank in Slovenia, and co-author of The Human Freedom Index.
An adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. isio Institut is an
independent public policy think tank in Slovenia. Aiming for open,
free, fair and developed Slovenia, the Visio Institut is publishing
a ray of publications, while Visio scholars regularly appear in
media and at public events.